


Preening tigers

by fish_wifey



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Cute, Gen, Sibling Bonding, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-30
Updated: 2017-11-30
Packaged: 2019-02-08 20:27:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12872376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fish_wifey/pseuds/fish_wifey
Summary: Akane needs the Good Hair for school on an important day, and there's only one person she can ask for help; her darling brother.Taketora may act the annoyed big brother, but he's a good big brother nonetheless.The Nekoma volleyball team also gets an exclusive look how that same big brother and little sister interact.





	Preening tigers

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the HQ!! Sibling zine~ I knew immediately that I wanted to do the tiger siblings ;v; They're so cute??? I am sure Taketora is an amazing big bro who cares a lot for his lil sis. Please check out the [adorableness of everybody else's work, too!](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ToI4Jp2dtSNyw3nm41J_0VzUL4CdBgAY/view) ((ITS FREE! AND ONLINE!! And so cute))

Despite appearances (and most likely because of his appearance), Taketora prides himself on never running late to class or club activities. He’s not exactly a morning person, yet he’s always hyped up to play volleyball. On the mornings they have off, he takes extra good care of himself, doing stretches and getting off a stop early to walk the rest of the way to school. Recently, he’s also started to take extra care of his face, after Ryuunosuke had given him a 15 minute rant over the phone about products to use.

Although he has all the time in the world, he reacts rather testily when his younger sister rushes back and forth between the bathroom and her room. At last, she barges past his door.

“Nii-san, nii-san!”

“What, what?” Taketora mimics her, tweezer in hand and pulling his brow taut. He is still looking at the mirror when his Akane creeps up behind him. 

“Emergency. You have to do my hair today.” At the small table beside the full length mirror, Akane unloads her arms. Her hair is a wild mess, and Taketora watches the uncombed, untreated mane bounce with a life of its own. It’s a sight he’s become used to since his sister grew out her hair and refused to have it cut shorter. Each and every morning it looks like this, despite numerous attempts to tame it during the night.

The reason he looks at her now is because of their secret code word, used between the siblings since Akane could (and would) run into trouble, or whenever Taketora needed someone to back up his stories. When it was an emergency, they would drop whatever was happening in their private lives, and help out the other.

“The fuck you have an emergency for?” Taketora asks, looking back at the mirror and this one tiny hair that doesn’t want to get tweezed out of his face. He was strictly forbidden to use cuss words in front of his little sister, but as Akane wouldn’t mimic them (he taught her to), and she likes them too, he cusses whenever they’re out of earshot of their family.

Serious as if great and grave matters hunt her down, Akane stands on tiptoes, her little hands balled into fists when she addresses her brother; two signs that indicate that she’s nervous.

“Today is a special day. I have to hold a presentation in class.” 

Mouth open, slightly occupied tweezing his eyebrows to short perfection, Taketora’s slack mouth inquires further. “What’s it about?”

“We had to pick a great influencing figure of Japan between the 1500-1800’s. I’m doing mine on Izumo no Okuni, obviously.”

“Obviously.” Taketora mouths, switching sides when one eyebrow is done at last. Even if most of the hairs are fine and light, he wants them gone. Although neither of them had ever been to a kabuki performance, Taketora had always thought the actors were really cool. Akane had fallen in love with the story of Izumo no Okuni, presumed founder of the kabuki theater, ever since she heard the stories about a woman swinging a sword in an era when women weren’t allowed to wield them.

Taketora had his doubts if a prostitute dancer was a proper choice for ‘influenceable’ figures, but he kept that to himself given Akane’s state.

Akane puts some of the products she wants her brother to use in order, knowing he likes certain things to not be utter chaos.

“And what exactly do you need the good hair for?” Whenever there were family gatherings, special occasions such as weddings, Taketora was put in charge of Akane’s hair. Their mother always made her cry by how ruthless she’d try to comb it, and their father had given up before Akane turned 7. Taketora, his bigger hands rougher from playing volleyball, yet blessed with a tender care in his fingertips, was the only one who could sleek out Akane’s hair. “Seriously Akane, why the big deal? Your hair is fine as it is, for school at least.” 

Taketora had been perfectly happy Akane didn’t take super long to fix herself in the mornings. She was but a child and wouldn’t need to. He’d always been proud of the thick, coarse, often curly hair they inherited from their mother and grandmother. There was nothing wrong with it. 

“Don’t you know about girls, nii-san? Sometimes we want to be and feel special! And, you know all about the high school trends. I want to look awesome today!” Akane smiles, trying to appeal to her brother's soft side, which is bribable with compliments.

It’s on the tip of his tongue. Taketora wants to tell his sister she’s special enough. How high school girls are yet out of her league. That she is awesome, simply for being a Yamamoto.

Brows done, he puts down the tweezer and checks his reflection before looking at his sister. Akane has fallen silent, a third sign that she’s super nervous. It unnerves Taketora too, seeing her like this. Her brows knit together and she eyes his tweezer. Knowing he won’t get a proper answer out of her, he rolls his eyes and steps back, making her stand in front of him. 

His fingers go through her hair, checking out the problematic strands (there are many), any possible webs (there are few), and if she has split ends (not yet). How exactly Akane woke up with hair that looked as if an Alfred Hitchcock movie had gone through it, was possibly located in how the siblings slept: wild and messy. A younger Taketora had once commented about it when he watched his sister thrash on the couch, having fallen asleep during family movie night. His mother had laughed, then said he slept in the exact same way as her.

Like a surgeon at work, Taketora deals with the hair of his sister in routine, precise steps. It takes three different combs to make it manageable. Then he uses mostly his own stronger, cocoa-smelling products. To cover the smell, he fixes it with her own berry scented bottles. At last he takes up a hair tie.

“A tie?” Akane eyes the simple black piece as if it wasn’t worthy enough to fix her emergency.

“No back-talk, lil sis. I know what I’m about.” Putting her hair over one shoulder, he ties it up in a side-ponytail that falls over her collarbone. Sleeking down her front bangs, he uses her favourite tiger pins (and more regular ones for the unruly bits) and pushes them to the sides to frame her cheeks.

“Done. Mademoiselle happy?” Taketora grunts, although he’s quite pleased with today’s work. 

Akane beams back at him through the mirror, radiating happiness from top to toe. She turns to hug him.

“You’re the best big brother I have!” 

Taketora groans, keeping his hands off her hair even after he cleaned them with a tissue. Instead he makes her back off, pushing her shoulders. “I’m the only big brother you have, dummy. Need me to check your speech?” 

“No!” She yells, then runs out. Taketora feels a smile creeping up his face, but then he sees all the things Akane left in his room.

“Akane! Get your shit outta my shit! Goddamnit!” 

*

Missing out on club activities is Taketora’s least favourite thing. He’d never skip for any reason. Normally, to be able to miss even one practice, he’d need a written and signed permission slip from his parents. 

Today however, the permission slip comes in form of his little sister, looking absolutely excited to watch the Nekoma high school gym. Akane toes outside the gym and glances around, while Taketora has to deal with his coach. He got the call from his mother during recess. Given he made Akane’s hair so pretty today, and that Akane needed new clothes, their mother asked him to take her shopping. She had no time to take her herself, and had to send an assistant to bring the money needed to Taketora’s school. He’d felt like a proper hoodlum, standing there accepting big wads of cash from a dude in a suit. 

The Nekoma coach looks past one Yamamoto to look at the younger female version, currently talking to Yaku and Inuoka. Most of the practice was just starting up, but they had stopped to talk to Taketora’s sister. Standing outside of the building in his school uniform, Taketora hadn’t been able to stop her from talking to anyone, while he was stopped himself by Coach Nobuyuki.

“Shopping. You need to take your little sister shopping.”

Taketora felt stupid about this, but wouldn’t bend. “If need be, you can contact my mom…” 

“No, no. I’m just imagining it.” Coach Nobuyuki laughs, glancing again at the little lady that interrupts his practice. Akane was no stranger towards the Nekoma members since Taketora started club activities here. Being free to go, Taketora sighs in relief, then tries to reach his sister.

“Sis, we’re good. Let’s go.” Taketora looks over his shoulder, where Akane is in the middle of an excited talk with Sou and Lev. She appears to not have heard him, which sets Taketora on edge. “Akane! Hey! We’re going.” 

No sign of being heard, Lev and Sou obviously working against him and Yaku laughing about it, Taketora grunts a low cuss and stalks over to where the four of them stand in front of the gym. He doesn’t try to call to her again, and simply squats down a little to gather her up in his arms. She moves naturally to have him support her weight, and her ponytail out of his face. Perched on his arm, Akane loops her arms around his neck for balance. 

“You didn’t come here to check on my teammates’ practise, remember?!” Nothing goes through her, and he just shakes his head and walks away, while Akane waves to Sou and Lev, who wave back energetically. 

On his way out, Kuroo takes a picture, and Taketora can’t trust that blank face hiding all the mirth his captain keeps inside.


End file.
